1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to providing a customized location tracking service which provides location information when a certain condition is satisfied according to a predetermined policy of notifying location information when the customized location tracking service is requested once, and more particularly, to a method of providing the customized location tracking service in which the path of a trackee is received, or the trackee's presence in a specific area is indicated, at a specific time slot or at a periodical time interval, by determining a temporal notification condition and/or a spatial/local notification condition.
The present invention also relates to providing a tracking device required to provide the customized location tracking service, a tracked mobile terminal, a location information server providing the location tracking service according to a notification condition, and a system.
This work was supported by the IT R&D program of MIC/IITA. [2006-P10-39, A Study on Standarization for MoIP Applications and VoIP Interworking.]
2. Description of the Related Art
With the explosive growth of their use, mobile communication terminals are now regarded as personal necessities of life. This has resulted in a growing demand from users who want a variety of value added services. A mobile terminal can be used while in motion, for locating a user who carries the mobile terminal. Such a location tracking service may be used in various fields, for example, to track down an offender by locating a terminal that has been used in a crime, to find a lost child, to find a friend, and to find a lost mobile terminal.
In the conventional location tracking service using a mobile terminal, when a location tracking service is asked the location of a tracked mobile terminal, only the current location information on the tracked mobile terminal is intermittently provided. Thus, in order to know the path of a certain mobile terminal, the location tracking service has to be periodically requested, which is inconvenient. Also, the location tracking service can be provided only at the request of the tracked mobile terminal. In response to the request, the location information is intermittently transmitted to a tracker. Therefore, a service such as a path tracking service cannot be achieved at a specific time slot.
Besides this problem, the conventional location tracking service lacks various applications, for example, an application service based on a geographical location, which would enable various applications. For example, a proxy driving service provider may attempt to send a short message service (SMS) publicity message to customers who have an experience of using a proxy driving service. In order to increase the possibility of providing the proxy driving service, the message may be sent to target customers who dine with coworkers after work in an area where the proxy driving service is available. In addition, an advertisement message may be not sent to customers who do not need the service. Parents at home could monitor the whereabouts of their children whenever the children are more than a certain distance from home. Therefore, this method may be used to prevent a lost child or a crime such as kidnapping.